It Must Have Been the Sambuca...

Today began by Liz and I heading to campus to pick up our student ID cards. We found our building and headed in for what we thought would be a quick, "Hi, I'm me, thanks for the card." Two hours later, after standing in a line with all the other hundreds of students that also left this small task for the last minute, we finally got the much coveted ID card and went to meet Chris and Paul for lunch at the student Union. Needless to say we needed a drink after standing in that horrendous line, and we were pretty stoked to find out that they served beer on campus! I guess it's not surprising since here the drinking age is 18, but we were still surprised to see it on campus. So we all got a pint and chatted over lunch, before we headed back to the flat. We were supposed to be getting a campus tour from Chris and Paul, but it had started raining during lunch so we decided to see it some other, drier time.

Once we were back in King's Park, we showered and got dressed for our first night out. It just so happened that it was Fresher's Week, which is basically an excuse for every human being over 18 to get absolutely hammered for 7 days right before school starts. Did I mention that it's damn close to free to drink during this week - I'm talkin less than £1 per drink here people. We got into town and met up with Paul, Chris, their roommate Lyn and most of the girl's football team at The Corn Exchange and had a few pints there before heading over to this club called Fubar.

This club is just like any other club in the States, so there wasn't anything necessarily exciting or new to be seen in Fubar. I'm not much of a clubber anyway, I usually think it's way too hot, the music is too loud, and you have to scream at the person beside you for them to hear you. Not to mention that the place is usually filled with teenage boys ogling teenage girls. What makes a Scottish club special then, you ask? Well, first of all, they had buckets of gummy bears that the employees were passing around, and any club that serves me candy as I wait in line to get in can't be all that bad. Also, the shocking level of nakedness that the females in this country seem to be ok with is what makes it truly special. I'm all for the rule "If you got it, flaunt it", but the problem is - these girls AIN'T got it. I'm not a hater and I can admit when another girl is looking good, but these girls are by and large just far too ugly/fat/old/young to be wearing what they do. I wish I had a picture to explain exactly what I mean, but unfortunately I lost my camera...that comes later in the story. Anyway I was shocked at the number of girls that were making normal sized t-shirts into dresses and calling it an outfit, but I was buzzing by this time so I didn't care as much to call any of them out on being slutty as I normally would.

We made our way into teenage wasteland and headed straight for the bar. By this time we were with a bigger crowd of people that Paul had recognized in line, so lucky for Liz and I the guys decided to buy everyone rounds, which meant that we didn't have to pay for anyting else for the rest of the night (not that this was that impressive, since everything was so cheap, but again, I was buzzing...). So I ordered a few WKD's (like Smirnoff Ice but they taste way better) and was already double fisting when I was handed a jelly shot. I took it quickly to avoid having to carry so much alcohol, but then Paul handed me another shot...I wasn't sure what this one was but I trust Paul so I took it. Immediately regretted that decision - it was Sambuca! I hate that stuff. Liz saw my face after I drank my shot and she didn't want anything to do with it, and I'm not one to let a perfectly good shot go to waste, so I took one for the team (I seem to do that a lot) and drank her shot too. I think the Sambuca is what did me in, but we will never know for sure.

Anyway, by this time I was ready to hit the dance floor with the naked teenage girls and the ogling teenage boys. We walked/stumbled upstairs where the music was thumping and I was ready to shake my booty. Unfortunately the music in clubs here sucks for the most part - for some reason the British are big into shitty dance music, and I like to shake it to good ol' black music like Beyonce and Usher. I wasn't getting any of that here, so I decided to make the best of it and we all had a good time for about an hour.

Since I'm not single anymore, I didn't dance with any men, and all the girls were occupied with loving the ogling they were getting, and everyone in my group was too tired to dance anymore. Not me, I was ready for at least another 30 minutes of booty shakin. I couldn't find another suitable human to dance with so I decided in my haze that the speaker that was taller than me and blasting out techno was the next best thing, so I rubbed against that for a while until I needed some water and fresh air.

I grabbed the rest of the group and we headed outside. It seemed like a great opportunity for a family photo, so I went for my clutch to get my camera out...and EVERYTHING was gone. At some point during the night amidst my speaker-grinding, my clutch had opened up and everything that was inside, including my camera, my favorite chapstick AND lip gloss, and £20 had fallen out somewhere in the club. Luckily I had my ID and my cell phone in my pocket. I shouted out in despair to Liz that I had lost my camera and was pretty close to tears, but she was drunk too so I don't think she cared all that much. I decided that Knoxie would definitely still be awake at 3am on a Monday and called him instead. Luckily he's a great boyfriend and talked to me in between my sobs enough to calm me down and tell me he would buy me a new one if I couldn't find the old one.

I stomped back to the group and demanded that we all go back inside and hunt for my missing camera, and everyone obliged, so we went back into the club to the places we had been, but alas - there was no sign of my poor Casio. Heartbroken and exhausted, Liz and I got a cab home after someone responsible decided it was waaay pasy my bedtime. So, until I get a new camera, my posts will be full of other people's pictures and appropriate images I find on Google :(